VR is also popular with our undergraduate students. Last term our third years did our module 3D Virtual Environments and Animation, which includes VR development. They were the first students to use our newly refurbished VR lab which includes Oculus Rifts, HTC VIVEs, Oculus Go and Acer Windows Mixed Reality. At the end of term, they presented their projects for the module. There was a really wide range of fantastic VR experiences, from fairground games, to virtual bar-tending and therapy for fear of heights to virtual photography.

A smart glove designed by a Goldsmiths, University of London student has received a top prize at Santander’s annual ceremony for student entrepreneurs.

BrightSign Glove, which translates hand gestures into speech and text, won the People’s Choice audience vote at the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards.

Hadeel Ayoub, PhD candidate in the Department of Computing, began developing the glove four years ago during her MA Computational Arts at Goldsmiths, and has since attracted international media attention and a raft of technology awards.

The glove is equipped with multiple sensors and machine learning software to enable individuals who use sign language as their primary language to communicate through text or digital voice directly, without the need for a translator.

BrightSign Glove was voted by the audience at the Santander awards event as having the greatest social, community, and environmental impact, and won a prize of £7,500.

Hadeel and her development team aim to make BrightSign available to everyone who needs it, at an accessible price. The product is still in development, and eagerly awaited by a fast-growing list of schools and parents. With 70 million sign language users globally, and 90% of deaf children being born to hearing parents, the glove has the potential to revolutionise communication across barriers.

Santander Universities Entrepreneurship winners were announced by Nathan Bostock, CEO of Santander UK, and received their awards from Ana Botín, Group Executive Chair, Santander Group.

Delivered by online learning platform Coursera, the MOOCs are designed to prepare students for the world-first BSc in Computer Science which has been designed by Goldsmiths and is being offered by the University of London.

The Introduction to Computer Programming MOOC gives participants foundation skills to write computer programs in programming language, as well as learning to create 2D and interactive graphics.

Lead instructor Dr Simon Katan, Lecturer in Computing, said: “In Introduction to Computer Programming, learners will be approaching the fundamentals of code through practical and creative exercises, and also explore how coders think and feel. We’ve drawn on our many years of teaching experience to deliver some cutting-edge pedagogy including our code adventure game Sleuth.”

The How Computers Work MOOC is designed for learners who are proficient with computers, smartphones and the internet but wish to improve their understanding of how they work, or go on to study computer science.

On this MOOC, learners can acquire key computer skills that can be applied to word processing applications, e-commerce, the internet and websites.

Instructor and Senior Lecturer in Computing Dr Marco Gillies said: “I’m really excited to be working with the University of London and Coursera to create a new way of learning computer science for the 21st Century.

“We’re bringing together the best learning technologies and the best teaching techniques to create a fantastic computer science learning experience for anyone, anywhere in the world.”

He added: “How Computers Work will introduce you to some fundamental computer science concepts and you’ll find out how they apply to the kind of computer applications you use every day. It’s a great foundation for starting to study computer science, but it will also give you a better understanding of the technologies that are so important to modern life.”

Sam Brenton, Director of Educational Innovation and Development for the University of London’s distance and flexible learning programmes, said: “This is an exciting time for the University as it prepares to launch one of its most innovative programmes, the BSc Computer Science.

“We anticipate a very broad appeal for this degree programme from students all over the world; not just those working in the technical field but also those from other industries.”

Head of Creative Computing, Simon Katan writes about the premier of his work ‘Clamour’ at the Roundhouse in Camden

Last Thursday my work Clamour premiered at the Roundhouse Camden’s Sackler Space. The work is an interactive mixed media theatre performance for live coder which is experienced simultaneously through audience smartphones, projection and sound. The aim is to wryly and reflexively interrogate how technology and social media mediate and influence our knowledge, relationships, and identities.

The piece tells the story of Sealand – a lone outpost surrounded by vast swathes of ocean – the sole surviving nation of global catastrophe. Now faced with an existential fight for its future, its people must forge the tools they require. New rules must be written, paving the way for a new state of being. With their resourcefulness and through working together what could go wrong? Throughout the performance, an inscrutable figure on stage (that’s me) controls all from their laptop – shaping divergent audience experiences with heuristic games that charm, frustrate and deceive. Yet it is the audience themselves, through gameplay with image, sound, and text, who determine the shape of the final performance.

I’ve been working on elements of the piece through various commissions over the last five years, and for this final stage I collaborated with digital artist Luke Fraser to bring everything together. Our development process involved numerous user testing sessions with Goldsmiths computing students to fine tune our interaction.

After a nerve wracking 15 minutes of dealing with the usual Wifi difficulties, the performance got underway. In such a performance it’s difficult to gauge reactions but a sprinkling of chuckles throughout gave me a good indication that things were progressing to plan. Read a review here http://www.savageonline.co.uk/our-journal/clamour/

A programme of regional touring is planned for Spring and Summer of 2019. You can find out more at clamour.org.uk.

The new academic year starts on Monday 24 September with a week of welcome activities before teaching starts on Monday 1 October 2018.

If you’re wondering which events you should go to, the answer is all of them!

The week includes a six-hour creative hackathon, undergraduate social events and induction sessions for all new students.

DoC Hack, our welcome week hackathon is organised by student tech society Hacksmiths. For six hours, you’ll design and build tech projects – and meet students & staff from across the department in a relaxed, informal environment. No special skills needed – just bring a laptop.

A third year student from Goldsmiths Computing has developed a unique felt circuit board to enable primary school children to learn about electronics.

The project, ‘Felt-e’, was created by BSc Creative Computing student Elisabetta Motta as a potential new resource for teaching physical computing to children.

She said: “My research into primary schools found that teachers in computing lessons often lack the resources and time to enthuse young boys and girls about the subject. Felt-e provides a unique, hands on experience for kids and allows them to be creative while learning about electronics. It’s also a resource that’s easy to understand for teachers who might be unfamiliar with computing.”

Elisabetta, 28, surveyed a number of teachers during her initial research, exploring the frustrations of many Key Stage 1 and 2 teachers around lack of computing knowledge and pressures to prioritise literacy and mathematics.

Common feedback included a difficulty keeping pupils focused and lack of resources to run hands-on activities, which inspired the design of the Felt-e board.

Similarly laid out to a breadboard – a commonly used electronic tool which allows the user to lay out components – Felt-e includes two bus strips and ten terminal strips. Each strip has metallic poppers, to which the user can connect ‘wires’ and other components.

The longer wires have one popper on one end to connect to the board, and a crocodile clip on the other end to connect to the micro controller. The shorter wires have poppers on each end so connect points on the board.

Components are made from white felt with drawings of the relevant electronic symbol on one side and positive and negative signs on each end (if relevant to the component). The circuit is also compatible with micro controllers including the BBC micro:bit.

Thursday 7 June sees our annual celebration of achievement by undergraduate students from across the department.

A mash-up of exhibition, show-and-tell, performance and academic conference, GENERATION is a showcase of outstanding computing projects realised by undergraduates in 2017-18. It’s an exhibition for anyone who’s interested in how digital technology and computer science is impacting on health, education, business and entertainment.

This year we have a lots of computer games, as well as virtual reality experiences, augmented reality apps, interactive thingamajigs and technologies for art, music, education, business and healthcare.